Saturday, August 30, 2014

I'm just reposting the collaborative poem as it stands now. Thank you, Rebecca for explaining how to add your voice! I am in awe of the twists and turns the meaning is taking, and hope you all are beginning to see how powerful collaboration can be, not only for a specific project, but as a spark for your own thinking.

Grow! For the sun caresses your sweet limbs and dew drops glisten atop your leaves.
Look! There are miracles all around you that you've never noticed before.
Prove! That you are willing to see the value in all that surrounds you.
Remain
Smell
Sound! it is beginning to sound like fun.
Taste
Turn
Stay! You make this world a better place.
Get
Appear
Feel

I also read with great interest the article Rebecca posted. You can bet we will be trying something similar in the months ahead. I think particularly about how open children are to imagination. The mother/artist drew realistic images that would make a picture book boring. The child's drawings immediately set my brain on a course of storytelling. What about you? Did any of you begin telling stories in your heads after seeing the images? Share them with us, if you did!

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

I have been mulling this over in my head all evening. I am convinced I fell asleep from 3:50 - 4:20. Bottom line is that Rebecca was correct. Actually, both Rebeccas are correct.

I feel bad.
-Feel is being used as a linking verb, not an action verb. That makes "bad" a subject complement/the predicate adjective. Bad is describing "me," not the verb.

I feel badly.
-Badly is an adverb describing an action verb. This usage implies that I have done a poor job of feeling something (fur, for example).

What makes this situation so confusing is that there is a list of words that could be either action or linking. These are called resultative verbs. Verbs related to the five senses often function in this way. They are: grow, look, prove, remain, smell, sound, taste, turn, stay, get, appear, feel.

And there you have it. I do know my grammar, but clearly was in a brain fog.

Let's do something creative and fun with this. Here's that list again. Choose one of the words with which to begin a sentence as a command. As each of us adds a line, we will see the makings of a collaborative poem.